Everton caretaker manager Ferguson backed by Carney and Hughton
Everton appointed club legend Duncan Ferguson as caretaker manager on Tuesday (18 January) and he has been backed to succeed by BBC pundits.
The Scot is set to take charge of his fourth game as Everton boss, having previously been caretaker in 2019 after Marco Silva’s sacking, when the Toffees host Aston Villa on Saturday (22 January).
On the BBC’s Football Daily podcast (17:53), Karen Carney and Chris Hughton both threw their support behind Ferguson to turn things around at Goodison Park.
“The big one is to try and appease the fans,” Carney said, “they’re disgruntled and getting someone in there who knows the club, get to the heart of the fans, be on their side.
“I’m not even an Everton fan but when he was on the sideline when he did the last caretaker job I was like, ‘Wow, look at him’.
“Straight away he got that connection and that’s missing at Everton. I don’t see that with the fans and the players, it’s completely disjointed.”
Hughton added: “It seems like a very good decision to me. Mostly I think it’s the feel around the club; we know big Dunc has done it before and what he will do is get that unity back again between the team and the supporters.
“He is an individual in the staff that they all look up to and I think it’s quite an obvious move. I see no reason why he can’t do it through to the end of the season.”
Give him a chance
Ferguson had just three games in charge when Silva was sacked by the Toffees in 2019 and in that time he picked up five points against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal.
That is a record any manager with any team would be content with but Farhad Moshiri was keen to bring in Carlo Ancelotti and Ferguson was appointed as assistant manager.
Ancelotti didn’t work as hoped and neither did Rafael Benitez so maybe now is the time to give the Scot a chance for more than just three games.
If he was able to compete with the best the Premier League has to offer, imagine what he could do against some of the weaker sides in the division.
He will at least get this weekend’s game against Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa and he could well get that long run if Moshiri decides to wait until the summer to find a permanent solution.
As we have seen with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, an interim manager can sometimes keep that seat for a good number of years if they do well and Ferguson could be another who fits the bill.
In other Everton news, Sky Sports have detailed developments within Everton in the last 24 hours.